It had been days since Achard had seen the sun. And then there it was, under the earth. For a moment he was stunned, staring upward into the warm gold brightness. Then the bells rang. A clatter of brass, heavy and frantic. Achard snapped his head around. He saw all the others, as surprised […]

  Enheduanna staggered forward, choking on the thick mist. Not mist, she thought. Thicker. A miasma. It dizzied her. She knew she had to get away, get out, or else collapse. She kept upright, kept moving, unsure which way she was going. She could no longer feel north inside her. She did not know her […]

  “Wait,” said Diccon. Gryselde held up a hand for a halt. The youth stepped forward, pushing the lanthorn beside him. No, thought Gryselde. Not a youth. Do not duck away from it. He is a man. He stares at me as a man does. And does he think I do not notice? Or perhaps he […]

  “Through the door,” said Geoffrey, but Alkahest would have none of that. “That door is in the eastern wall,” she said. “We need to go north a little, and west.” They had come only ten yards or so from the cave that held the mortal village. Hob-goblin bodies were scattered here and there, with […]

  Diccon stood behind Gryselde as the inn-girls brought the table out front of the building, and watched as the sorine got up on the table before him. He took a deep breathe, staring at her arse. Half of him wanted to go find a book and sit in the forest and read, laughing. The […]

  Olujimi sat cross-legged on his bed, contemplating the divination board and the words he’d had for Yejide. Ulixa. He wished he’d had something better to tell her. But truth was truth. He lifted his right hand to his neckalce. It felt cold; uncomfortably so. He heard someone else enter the long room. He looked […]

  The Ring was long since done, and Anselm was sweeping out the church, as was his responsibility, when he saw the newcomers moving toward the inn. He’d watched earlier from the church door as the winged lady Aura, in her film-like silks, had fluttered one way and another through the cave’s endless night: like […]

  Sir Hugh of the Annulets Sable stood at the oriel window of his manor hall, hands clasped behind his back. It had been his habit to stand so, and look over the lands that he held in charge. Now he saw only the shadowed rock of the cave wall. He turned away, back to […]

  Kate thought that the canons of Secga were funny, the way they shouted at each other and called each other names and challenged each other to go back to their library without any of them ever actually going. She stopped watching them, though, when the preceptor began to speak. Kate couldn’t explain how she […]

  These things are true. He has dreamed them. In his dreams alone may he escape this place, this ruin of his own making. Only ever for a moment; and always as a sign that he must wake again and face a duel. His eyes open; where has he awoken? This time it is a […]